vidrio

Forms

vidrio m (plural vidrios)^[1] Old Spanish also has vedrio and vidro.^[2] The popular form vidro almost became general in the Golden Age: Nebrija gives both, and Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Mateo Alemán used it.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vitreum (“an object of glass”), the neuter of vitreus (“of glass”), derived from vitrum (“glass”).^[3][5][6][1] Latin called the material itself by the noun, while the neuter plural of the adjective meant glassware and its singular is sometimes found with the same sense.^[3] In popular speech it came to name the material itself.^[3] The stressed /i/ of the Spanish word can only be explained by metaphony, the raising of /e/ by the following yod.^[3]

The same word is Portuguese vidro, Galician vidro, Asturian vidru and Catalan vidre, while Italian vetro, French verre and Occitan veire continue the noun.^[3][7][1] The learned doublet is vítreo.^[1]

De Vaan, following Szemerényi, derives the noun from Proto-Italic *wedro- and Proto-Indo-European *ued-ro- (“water-like”), a parallel being a Middle Iranian word for glass formed from the word for water.^[8][1] The Latin word also named woad, a plant giving blue dye, which de Vaan thinks was named after the colour of ancient glass.^[8] Wiktionary also mentions a substrate word shared with Proto-Germanic *waizdaz (“woad”) and Ancient Greek ἰσάτις (isátis, “woad”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is the Semejanza del mundo (c. 1223), which compares the rainbow with el vaso de vidrio lleno de agua “the glass vessel full of water” that shines in the sun.^[9] Berceo, the DCECH's first record, describes in the Vida de Santo Domingo (c. 1236) a narrow bridge that de vidrio era toda “was all of glass”.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario uses uidrio for the material, attracted by a certain stone as iron is by the magnet.^[10] Covarrubias (1611) retold Pliny's story of the discovery of glass on the coast of Phoenicia.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1739) defined the material, any vessel made of it (a 1680 price list charges for cada vidrio grande de agua), and, in poetry, water.^[12]

Later senses are a pane of glass, a fragile thing, a touchy person, and the seat of a coach that faced backwards.^[6] In Latin America vidrio also means a window.^[1] Corominas notes that in educated speech cristal is taking over much of its ground.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo has vaso de vidrio.^[9]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo (in a late 13th-century copy).^[9][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario writes uidrio.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives vidrio o vidro as Latin vitrum.^[4]
• 1512 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias tells Pliny's story of the invention of glass.^[11]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds the poetic sense “water”.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary defines glass by its chemical composition.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. glass: a hard, brittle, transparent or translucent material without crystalline structure, made by melting silica sand with potash.^[6][1]
2. A pane of glass in a window or door.^[6]
3. A piece or vessel of glass.^[6]
4. Something very delicate and fragile.^[6]
5. A touchy person, quickly annoyed.^[6]
6. (dated) In a horse-drawn coach, the seat that faces backwards.^[6]
7. (Latin America) A window.^[1]

Word family

• vidriar
• vidriado
• vidriero
• vidriera
• vidriería
• vidrioso
• limpiavidrios
• elevavidrios

Related words

• vitral
• vítreo
• vitrificar
• vitrina
• vitriolo
• Latin vitrum
• Portuguese vidro

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. vidrio
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 804
4. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 430
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vidrio
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. vidrio
7. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 9, 274
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. vidrio
10. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. vidrio
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1384
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6
13. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. vidrio
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1088